Common Sense Advisory

What kind of financial return should your company expect when you localize its products? If you translate your marketing website, will more people buy what you're selling? Or is English enough for both products and the websites that market them? This report tackles those oft-asked questions with an eight-country survey of 351 business buyers.

Since the beginning of 2005, we have conducted quarterly business confidence surveys of buyers and suppliers using an OECD-style questionnaire. In this Quick Take, we look at the raw data for language service demand in the third quarter of 2008, what respondents expect to see for the final three months of the year, and how this all stacks up against our data from the second quarter.

Earlier this year, we pointed out that a significant portion of domestic U.S. telephone interpreting (TI) revenue originates in the health care sector ("Telephone Interpreting: The Supply Side," Jun08). In fact, two over‐the‐phone interpretation companies - CyraCom and Pacific Interpreters - target hospitals and health care organizations almost exclusively. Other TI suppliers, such as Certified Languages International, Language Line Services, and Language Services Associates, also cater to the specialized needs of health care customers.

Figuring out what quality means is not an easy process. It's a long road, along which many lessons are learned. Buyers told us that they found it very difficult to define, measure, and assess quality. Those who purchase translation services for large global companies also feel that over time, their methods, technology, and knowledge regarding translation quality - and how to achieve and maintain it - are improving. In this Quick Take, we provide insight into the recurring themes that emerged in our conversations to help vendor.

The jury of economists has weighed in with their verdict that the economy is in recession. The chattering classes have amplified the problems, causing consumers and businesses -- language service providers included -- to fear even more market contractions. What do we think about the prospects for the translation sector? Our advice to LSPs is to take a breath, service your customers, and continue building your business. Resist the temptation to retreat into your shell during the recession. This Quick Take presents 10 tips that enable LSPs to keep growing during the economic downturn.

In the course of analyzing developments in the translation and localization industry, Common Sense Advisory sometimes encounters companies that have ratcheted innovation up a notch -- by the business model they use, the technology they employ, or the vision they promote. This Quick Take describes four creative companies that are poised to shake things up in the language services space -- Adaquest, CSOFT, DotSUB, and ProZ.

Today, when financial markets resemble roller coasters more than bourses, media outlets and websites pile on with unrelenting coverage that incestuously amplifies the bad news. Their focus on the troubled sectors reinforces the conventional wisdom, convincing many observers that the sky is indeed falling. As the ripples spread, planners use tactical measures to improve efficiency in the short term. This Quick Take for globalization service buyers presents 10 tactical and strategic responses to managing globalization projects in troubled markets.

How do vendors and purchasers of translation services view quality? Where do their ideas about quality align, and where do they diverge? Based on our surveys of both groups, this 19-page report discusses the differences between buyer and supplier perspectives on the topic of translation quality. This report reveals the differences in viewpoints between LSPs and their clients in the areas of vendor humility, customer service, branding importance, linguists' subject matter expertise, and more. It also provides suggestions for closing the quality gap.

In 2004, we began to formalize our observations about the state of the translation business into a more rigorous, regular pulse-taking of the language industry. We introduced the Common Sense Advisory Global Business Confidence Survey, a quarterly poll of translation business opinion from the perspectives of both suppliers and buyers. This update outlines the results of our second-quarter 2008 survey of buyers of language services. Later this year, we will produce a consolidated report analyzing the complete dataset from 2004 through 2008.

In 2004, we began to formalize our observations about the state of the translation business into a more rigorous, regular pulse-taking of the language industry. We introduced the Common Sense Advisory Global Business Confidence Survey, a quarterly poll of translation business opinion from the perspectives of both suppliers and buyers. This update outlines the results of our second-quarter 2008 survey of suppliers of language services. Later this year, we will produce a consolidated report analyzing the complete dataset from 2004 through 2008.

In our recent sizing exercise for the worldwide interpreting market, Common Sense Advisory surveyed 17 U.S. hospitals to obtain information regarding annual spending on both outsourced and in‐house interpreting services. Based on our research and experience with language and business‐related measurements, we developed a new tool -- the language access ratio (LAR) -- to enable hospitals to see how their spending compares to that of their peers. In this Quick Take, we describe the method for calculating the ratio and reveal some results of our initial survey.

Our recent research and surveys on how people view translation quality reveal disparities between buyers and suppliers (see "Buyer-Defined Translation Quality," Aug08). However, when we asked buyers to rank the importance of various industry standards, "never heard of it" was the most common answer for all but two of the 17 specifications and standards. Language service providers held similar views.

This report assesses and compares the feature coverage of two dozen commercial and LSP-specific TMS offerings, exploring differences among four types of system: translation-centric systems that power collaborative workgroups; business-type applications that streamline operations for translation companies and departments; enterprise-class platforms that attempt to do it all; and house systems delivered part and parcel with translation and localization services. In our assessments, we score each technology platform across ten major feature categories.

2008 has been a year of upheaval in the language technology sector. Following the acquisition of the leading independent translation management vendor by one of the largest language service providers earlier this year, both buyers and suppliers have jockeyed for position in the new world order of translation services and technology. This Quick Take focuses on the supply side.

There is a gap in the translation memory (TM) market. Freelance translators need a tool that will make TM technology available en masse without the complexity, up-front costs, and annual renewal costs associated with today's most popular programs. So, in a chat with Frank Bergmann, we asked about his attempt to fill that void through the freelancer-targeted initial phase of a new open source translation memory offering -- TinyTM.

What does translation quality mean to large-scale purchasers of translation services? This report illuminates the views of high-profile global brands in seven industries: automotive, life sciences, high-tech, retail, travel and leisure, consumer manufacturing, and heavy manufacturing. The report also identifies how issues of quality are treated at various phases within the localization maturity model (LMM).

We recently sat down to talk with the folks at Los Angeles‐based JBI Studios, formerly known as JBI Localization, to hear about their corporate rebranding strategy -- as well as their related effort to make it clear to language service providers (LSPs) that they're not a foe, but a friend. The company hopes that this new approach will differentiate it from competitors such as SDI Media Group, Inter Cultura Multilingual Media, and iProbe Multilingual Solutions.

Our recent reports on the telephone interpreting market included the first ever market size estimates for this industry. They also revealed the Top 15 providers (see "Telephone Interpreting: The Demand Side," Jun08 and "Telephone Interpreting: The Supply Side," Jun08).

For the fourth time in the past six years, telephone interpretation (TI) provider Language Line Services (LLS) has gained back market share through acquisitions and alliances. Its aggressiveness creates interesting implications for the industry. This time, fifth-ranked competitor NetworkOmni was the target.

Are you missing out on international sales because you cannot accept the payment options that your global customers want to use? We've written that people won't buy what they don't understand (see "Can't Read, Won't Buy," Aug06). The corollary is that they won't buy what they can't pay for. No, this isn't about tight credit, but rather the ability of people to use their familiar methods of payment to buy online.